Released texts tell of intent to kill before girl beaten in Deerfield

Every bone in Ratley's face was broken, doctor reportedly said

May 13, 2010|By Sofia Santana, Sun Sentinel

Hours before a savage beating at Deerfield Beach Middle School in March, the teen charged in the attack told friends via text messages that he planned to snap Josie Lou Ratley's neck and stomp on her skull to kill her for badmouthing his dead brother.

"Snap her neck then stomp her skull. Fastest way I could think of," read one of the texts, which were released Thursday in the court case against Wayne Treacy, 15.

An emergency room doctor at Broward General Medical Center told detectives that every bone in Ratley's face was broken in the attack, according to investigative reports, also released Thursday by the Broward State Attorney's Office.

Treacy, a Deerfield Beach High School student, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempted first-degree murder and will be tried as an adult.

The March 17 beating took place at the school's bus loop just after the 2:50 p.m. dismissal.

Treacy's attorney, Russell Williams, said the released texts tell only part of the story and didn't include all the messages Treacy's friends sent him on the day of the beating.

The releases also didn't include the specific text in which Ratley, 15, commented on Treacy's brother. That text, which investigators said set Treacy off, was sent from an e-mail account to Treacy's phone, Williams said.

Investigators did not find that text on Treacy's phone.

"It's like reading a book with missing pages," Williams said.

It's possible that Treacy exceeded the text message storage capacity on his phone that day, automatically erasing older texts, detectives said as they reviewed the messages. The review, authorized by a search warrant, was videotaped for use in court.

In the texts, Treacy repeatedly wrote that he was going to the middle school to attack the girl who said something bad about his brother. The texts don't mention exactly what was said.

Treacy's brother, Michael Bell, 30, committed suicide outside a Pompano Beach church in October. Williams, clarifying previous statements from family members that Treacy "found" his brother hanging, said Tracy was in his mother's car when she happened on the scene before Beall was taken down.

Treacy didn't mention Ratley by name in the texts because the two hardly knew each other, investigators have said.

Another text message sent from Treacy's phone about an hour before the beating reads: "This bxtch ran her mouth bout my bro who she knew is dead. Nao I want her head."

About the same time, Treacy began telling his friends via text messages that he was down the street from the school, waiting for the girl, Ratley, to get out of school at afternoon dismissal.

In other texts, friends tried to calm Treacy and asked him what he planned to do to the girl who angered him.

Treacy's texting ended at 2:49 p.m. that afternoon, with him telling friends: "I just tried to kill sum1. Im going to prison."

Staff writers Rafael Olmeda, Robert Nolin and Michael Turnbell contributed to this report.